Oxidative stress and inflammation in COVID-19: potential application OF GLP-1 receptor agonists

COVID-19 is a global pandemic with devastating economic and public health im-pacts, which is particularly associated with in-creased incidence of respiratory and cardiovas-cular disease together with inflammation and oxidative stress as essential underlying fea-tures. Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) recep-tor agonists are now routinely used for the clinical management of type 2 diabetes due to their established glucose-dependent insulino-tropic actions. However, these agents also dis-play a variety of pleiotropic functions, includ-ing the promotion of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant responses, highlighting likely therapeu-tic applications beyond glycemic control. Given that COVID-19 is particularly linked with adverse modulation of inflammatory and oxidative sig-naling, which are known to be impacted by GLP-1 receptor activation, it seems logical that GLP-1 receptor agonists may be beneficial for the clin-ical management of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this review, we discuss the specific role of inflammation and oxidative stress associ-ated with COVID-19, including underlying patho-genic mechanisms, as the basis for the potential therapeutic application of GLP-1 receptor ago-nists to combat both acute and chronic compli-cations of this devastating disease.